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Ravenna Southeast sophomore Jenna Fesemyer will take part in the first wheelchair competition in the 106-year history of the state track and field meet. Ohio will become the 17th state to put disabled student-athletes on the same footing as the nearly 300,000 others who compete throughout the school year.
(Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain Dealer)

By competing, I'm saying, 'This is for you. Take this opportunity and run with it. Take it now when you're in high school and while you can.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Predictions of great moments in sports almost always come up short. But this one can't miss.

At 9:40 a.m. Saturday, high school sophomores Jenna Fesemyer, born with one leg, and Randy McMullen, born with spina bifida, will approach the starting line for the 100-meter dash. The crowd at Ohio State's Jesse Owens Stadium will stand, some with goose bumps, others with lumps in throats.

"You know it will be like a movie," Chagrin Falls track coach Dave Kirk said.

The gun will go off. A cheer will rise up. Tears will fall on the cheeks of parents, coaches and fans.

And Ohio high school sports will enter a new era. Wheelchair athletes will compete for the first time in the 106-year history of the state track and field meet, and Ohio will become the 17th state to put disabled student-athletes on the same footing as the nearly 300,000 others who compete throughout the school year.

Nine boys and one girl will be trailblazers on wheels.

"It's an honor to be first," said Fesemyer, who attends Ravenna Southeast. "To be known as the first girl to try to accomplish wheelchair racing at the state meet is a memory I'm going to cherish forever, and I'm really glad Ohio decided to add these events."

Fesemyer and McMullen, of Kent Roosevelt, will compete in all four events -- the 100, 400, 800 and shot put. As the only girl, Fesemyer will compete with -- but not against -- the boys and she will receive first-place medals for the events she completes.

Fesemyer isn't disappointed by the lack of female competition. On the contrary, she embraces an opportunity to grow the sport she hopes will lead her to the Paralympic Games.

"It drives me to get the word out," she said. "There are so many kids who without this event would never know what competing in track would feel like. They would never have that feeling of being a team member. I'm doing this for all the kids who can't get out of their wheelchairs."

Fesemyer is an extraordinarily well-spoken, thoughtful and optimistic 16-year-old with an omnipresent smile. She has emerged as a natural spokesperson for the new Ohio sport. Fesemyer wants very much to be a role model for prospective wheelchair athletes. It would appear she's already a role model for many others. She recently penned a chapter on empathy for an upcoming book written by a relative. Her classmates voted her class president this week.

"There was a point in my life where I said, 'What's God's plan for me? Why did he choose me to be born this way?'" said Fesemyer, who has scribbled Bible verses on pieces of tape all over her racing chair. "That was before I knew anything about the Paralympics and before I knew anything about the state meet. He opened my eyes and said, 'This is why, to show other people this is an event.' I truly believe this is why I was born this way, that I can show other people, and inspire other people that they can be doing this, and I don't have to be the only one.

"By competing, I'm saying, 'This is for you. Take this opportunity and run with it. Take it now when you're in high school and while you can. The experience can go as a life lesson for college and when you get job opportunities. When you see something that you want, go and grab it because you don't know how long it's going to be there.'"

The feeling among those who helped make it a reality is wheelchair sports are here to stay in Ohio high schools. They are encouraged by a wide-range of groups that have stepped up to support it, from coaches and track officials to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, to nonprofits and corporations.

"This is just the beginning, step five of 1,000," said Kirk, who along with former St. Ignatius athletic director Dale Gabor, were the driving forces and took the first steps. As he spoke, Kirk had exchanged a high-five with McMullen during a photo shoot. McMullen had proudly informed Kirk he'd just received his varsity letter.

"Outstanding," Kirk said.

Kirk believes the impact at more than 800 Ohio high schools will be significant beyond the track when students and staff see kids in wheelchairs standing out, wearing jerseys and letter jackets, instead of being overlooked.

"We watch them go down the hall and see their difficulty, and we write them off," he said. "We have thousands of wounded warriors coming home. How we view them in society has to be different, and I hope that's what these kids are doing here. I hope coaches see these kids and go back to their school and say, 'What about this kid, could he do this?' That's what I hope comes out of this."

It isn't just coaches who take notice, of course. Fair or not, sports have a way of expanding social circles like no other school activity. Randy's father, Tom, said the difference has been "night and day" for Randy at school. Math teacher John Callaway said Randy would proudly show classmates videos of him competing.

"Before he came out for track, I hadn't a clue who he was," Kent Roosevelt track captain Alante Jones said of McMullen. "When he came to us, I welcomed him and he became part of our family. He's doing great. He jokes around with people and he's a good person to get to know."

McMullen is the top shot-put qualifier at the state meet.

"I can't wait to go to state. I want to show people what I can actually do. I'm a very competitive guy," said McMullen, who recently played on a national-qualifying wheelchair basketball team sponsored by the Achievement Centers for Children.

The OHSAA initially said it would take only the top eight qualifiers in each event based on regular-season marks, but dropped the requirement to accept all 10 who submitted entries. The wheelchair participants won't earn points for their team.

McMullen, Fesemyer and five others will compete in high-performance racing chairs valued at $3,000 and loaned to them by Adaptive Sports Program of Ohio, a Wooster-based non-profit. Executive Director Lisa Followay's son, Casey, was born with spina bifida and is one of the top state meet qualifiers.

"It's a good organization that's quite aggressive in making sure kids are included," said Tom McMullen. "I know this is not going to be popular, but I think my child has more privileges than most children because he's handicapped. We have a tremendous amount support for handicapped children in this part of the country. Portage County is fantastic."

View full size"I can't wait to go to state," says Kent Roosevelt sophomore Randy McMullen. "I want to show people what I can actually do. I'm a very competitive guy."Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain Dealer

Wheelchair athletes come with a wide range of functionality, and they are divided into specific categories according to their disabilities when competing on the national and international levels. But because it is so new in Ohio, amputees compete in wheelchairs against athletes who are wheelchair bound, and those who have never walked compete against those who are recent trauma victims.

"It can be unfair depending on what your disability is, but we're very happy the OHSAA is offering it," said the APSO's Lisa Followay.

Among the trauma victims is Zach Hanf, a 2011 All-Ohio cross country runner from Thornville Sheridan. He was critically injured in an auto accident last October and lost his left leg.

McMullen uses a wheelchair to get around, and he gets out of his chair and crawls as needed.

Fesemyer was born with a rare congenital disease called proximal femoral focal deficiency, which left her without a left leg or hip socket. She is a triplet, and her brother, John, and sister, Jessica, do not have the condition.

Doctors told her family at birth Jenna would never be able to use a prosthetic leg because of her partial leg stump and hip issues. She proved them wrong at an early age, and has grown up playing basketball and other sports. She's a two-year starter on Southeast's girls golf team, with a low 9-hole round of 42.

She grew up tagging along to Southeast track meets with her mother, Cindy, who is the girls head coach, and as a student at Southeast in 1975 ran in the first state track meet to include girls. Jenna quickly figured out how to do a standing discus throw. She dreamed of running.

Last summer, after meeting her at the U.S. Paralympic Trials, which she attended as a fan, a manufacturer of elite Paralympic prosthetic running "blades" donated a high-tech prosthesis to her valued at close to $30,000. For the first time, she experienced the true joy of running, and she was humbled.

"My first step on my running leg was like a light bulb went off in my head," she said. "I want this to be part of my life because it has developed me into the person I am today. It's taught me to be a little more patient. It taught me that others can support me. It taught me respect, because of the respect others are giving me."

This spring, Fesemyer ran on a Southeast 4x100 relay that placed fourth at an invitational meet. She competed in the discus, throwing more than 84 feet, a mark that places her among the top emerging U.S. women Paralympic throwers for her classification.

Southeast has a cinder track, so Fesemyer trains at other local schools and a park. She and McMullen competed at several meets this year that either offered wheelchair events, or opened races up to include wheelchair athletes.

At each meet, the fan reaction often was tender and ardent.

"I would not be truthful if I didn't say I'd get very emotional," said Cindy Fesemyer. "You see Jenna trying so hard and you hear the people in the stands, and their response for her. To see people's faces smiling and to see her compete like this ..."

Her voice trailed off. She didn't want to say if she cried. On Saturday, she knows she won't be able to avoid it.

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